Michelin’s rising and falling stars

The rankings in the 2009 Michelin guide to the San Francisco Bay Area and Wine Country were released this morning.

This morning Michelin released its third annual guide to the San Francisco Bay Area and Wine Country, which shows that the dining scene has remained fairly consistent during the last year.
There’s still just one three-star restaurant in the Bay Area: the French Laundry.

The guide awards six restaurants two stars. The newcomer is Coi, which earned one star last year. The returning two-stars are Aqua, Cyrus in Healdsburg, Manresa in Los Gatos, Meadowood in St. Helena and Michael Mina. Chez TJ in Mountain View lost a star, falling to a one-star rating. (New York has seven two-stars and four three-stars in this year’s guide, which includes many more restaurants.)

In an interesting twist, the chef at Chez TJ when it rated two stars was Christopher Kostow; he’s now at the Restaurant at Meadowood, where he has maintained the two stars earned last year by Joseph Humphrey. Humphrey left Meadowood to open Murray Circle, which debuted this year with one star.

The one-star category was decreased by two — last year there were 27 and this year there are 25 (New York has 42).

The biggest surprise is that Quince, the popular Italian restaurant in Pacific Heights, lost its star. So did K&L Bistro in Sebastopol, which was a real head-scratcher to me anyway. Another loser was Sushi Ran, the popular Japanese restaurant in Sausalito. Rubicon was on the list last year, but has since closed. La Toque in St. Helena has just moved into new quarters in Napa and will probably return with a star ranking next year.

The new restaurants joining the one-star fold are Murray Circle in Sausalito, Plumed Horse in Saratoga, Trevese in Los Gatos and the Village Pub in Woodside.

The returning one-stars are Acquerello, Ame, Auberge du Soleil in Rutherford, Bistro Jeanty and Bouchon in Yountville, Boulevard, Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Chez TJ, Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton, Farmhouse in Forestville, Fifth Floor (where Laurent Manrique of two-star Aqua took over the kitchen earlier this year), Fleur de Lys, Gary Danko, La Folie, Madrona Manor in Healdsburg, Martini House in St. Helena, Masa’s, One Market, Range, Redd in Yountville and Terra in St. Helena.